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Can touchscreen controls ever replace – or even closely match – control input from a gamepad or keyboard and mouse? This demonstration of Valve’s Portal and Microsoft Flight Simulator played on Microsoft’s experimental Surface platform offers hope that it might.
Back in July, our Luke Plunkett wrote about the high-tech future of board games. Then we saw a canned demo of classic game Catan on Microsoft’s surface. Now, watch real people play, as seen at PAX 2010.
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Microsoft’s Surface device has already shown its worth for board games, but let’s not forget, it has a lot of potential for strategy games as well. Especially after you watch this video.
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Last month we took a close look at a new version of classic board game Settlers of Catan, one being readied for Microsoft’s giant touch-screen computer. Since then, a new build of the game has been released.
For as long as we’ve known the pair, video games have been video games, and board games have been board games. But as time and technology march on, could two become, as the Spice Girls say, one?
They weren’t exactly impressive, but the Microsoft Surface tables set up at CES did have games running on them. Too bad they all seemed like the sort you’d find on an iPhone and not a $US10,000 interactive computer thingie.
The guys who are bringing Dungeons & Dragons (unofficially) to Microsoft’s tabletop Surface system have been plugging away at their creation, giving us an extended, in-depth look at how one DMs the world’s most expensive, most technically impressive campaigns.
Hopefully most of you still remember Microsoft’s Surface, that tabletop computer system that uses intuitive multitouch control. And while we doubt the platform will be replacing Street Fighter IV cabinets any time soon, Microsoft’s first game for the device, Firefly (by Hexic’s Carbonated Games), is interesting from the technical demonstration standpoint. Now I’m ready to see them really push the boundaries and aggressively integrate all ten fingers into a game design.
Firefly: The first game for Microsoft Surface [SarcasticGamer]
Microsoft’s Surface technology sure is nifty, but it’s going to cost a pretty penny. Oh, and it’s real world applications are a bit questionable, too. But this Wii-mote hack, done in the Johnny Lee style does its best to recreate the Surface tech, without leaving greasy finger prints. Maestro, as its creators at Cynergy have named it, require a Wii remote and a pair of LED gloves—soon to be obsolete when we’ll have the diodes embedded in our fingertips in the not too distant future—in order to work. More details are available by press play or visiting the YouTube page on the matter.
Cynergy Labs: Project Maestro [YouTube via Gizmodo AU]
